With this article, we resume our study of forgiveness in the Bible.

We have learned already that if we're going to forgive biblically, then we must learn forgiveness from the whole Bible, Old and New Testaments. The Bible teaches forgiveness not with a verse here or there, or with a summary slogan, not even with a single, simple definition. To understand and practice forgiveness, we need The Whole Bible.

Speaking of definitions, I think it's helpful at this point to resist the frequent impulse, when asked "Now, just what is forgiveness?" to reach for a book of definitions, a dictionary of religious terms and concepts. To be sure, these tools have their place. But that's not how God comes to us to teach for­giveness. In fact, one of the most usual and effective ways God teaches forgiveness — if we are to take God at His Word — is by means of a story.

I'd like you to read the following story, and then to compose a few sentences that complete this thought: "Forgiveness is...."

Here's the story:

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father."

Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.Genesis 50:15-21

Here God tells us one of the first forgiveness stories recorded in Scripture.

The Event Itself⤒🔗

After Jacob had died, Joseph's brothers awoke to the implications of their circumstances in Egypt. With father Jacob gone, they were at Joseph's mercy, the one whom they had terrorized and betrayed years earlier. Aware of their own guilt, they worried, now, about what Joseph would do to them.

Before he died, these brothers claimed, Jacob had counseled his sons to seek Joseph's forgiveness. So, appealing to his love for his father_; they presented a plea for forgiveness. Through a messen­ger, they communicated their plea as their father's "last wish," hum­bling themselves before Joseph as "servants of the God of your father."

Joseph wept — again.

Encouraged that their plea had brought Joseph to tears, these sib­lings came in person and pledged fealty to him as slaves and bond­servants.

To this Joseph replied, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will pro­vide for you and your little ones."

What Happened Here?←⤒🔗

Here we see that Joseph "did not consider himself to be God and take vengeance for what God had intended for the saving of the lives of many people" (G. Aalders, Genesis, 2:297). "Real forgiveness is not a purely interpersonal matter, but it reaches deeply into the relationship of men before God ... A great deal depends on one's not interpreting Joseph's amazed question as a universal pious trust, i.e., as a humble declaration of noncompetence, as though not he but God alone had to judge in this matter. This would be poor comfort for the brothers if Joseph were merely moving the matter with this statement to a higher court. But Joseph's meaning here is that, in the remarkable conduct of the whole story, God Himself has already spoken. He has included the guilt, the brothers' evil, in His saving activity; He has preserved for them the 'great remnant' (45:7) and has thus justified them. Were Joseph to condemn them now, he would be setting a negative statement beside the one God had already spoken and would thus be putting himself 'in the place of God.' ..." (G. von Rad, Genesis, 432).

In summary, Joseph's careful consideration of divine providence has two powerful effects: reflect­ing on God's providence (1) tempered his anger at being wronged, and (2) muted any call for vengeance against those who once were his enemies.

The Story in its Contexts (1)←⤒🔗

But there's more, much more, to forgiveness than being moved by reflections on divine providence. To savor the full meaning of Joseph's response, we may not stop here, but must press outward in a circular sweep, to the contexts (before and after) surrounding this passage. (Here's an important EROT [Exegetical Rule Of Thumb]: just as a Bible verse cannot be properly understood apart from its literary context, so too a Bible passage/story cannot be understood apart from its larger context of Bible book and Testament.)

The narrative leading up to this events presents to us a covenant lad with whom we sympathize, perse­cuted by his brothers, loved by his father. We have been following the career of a wise political ruler whom we admire, schooled in the world, yet always conscious of his identity. By now, as we reach the end of Joseph's story, we recognize this once-wimpish, now world-renowned Jewish fellow as the surprising savior of his people (and others) — whose next-to-the-last recorded act was to forgive his brothers.

Interesting, isn't it, that we read nothing explicit about such a confession of sin and plea for forgiveness in the earlier encounter between Prince Joseph and his famished brothers. But here, at "the end of the story," we witness a forgiveness scene.

What if Joseph had refused to extend such forgiveness?

If he had withheld forgiveness, then what would have been the point of all of Joseph's suffer­ing — his kidnapping and landing in Egypt, his false arrest and imprisonment? Or what would have been the purpose of his benevolence toward his family — other than pride and preeminence? And why, then, the deliverance they had all experienced from famine, that is: from death?

You see, this next-to-the-last scene in the story of Joseph's life forms the climax of the story. Joseph forgiving his brothers is the point of the whole story! Cut out this scene, and Joseph's story isn't even worth telling — or you'll need to invent another reason for telling it (as they have in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat).

From a merely human point of view, it seems clear that if Joseph had refused to extend forgiveness, but had instead executed righteous judgment and deserved punish­ment upon his brothers (meaning: put them to death), you wouldn't be reading this article. Would it be too strong an assertion to declare that Joseph's refusal to forgive would have aborted (supposing such were possible!) the promised salvation being prepared for full disclosure in Jesus Christ? If high-powered Joseph had not forgiven his helpless sibling malefactors, but instead had executed well-deserved judgment against them, you wouldn't be reading Genesis 50:22 — Revelation 22:21!

Just think about the power of forgiveness denied!

And then think about the power of forgiveness granted. Again, from a merely human point of view, Joseph's forgiveness extended to his brothers meant that life could continue, history could move forward, redemption could unfold.

You see, forgiveness does exactly that. Both God's original, pattern-setting forgiveness and our responsive, imitative forgiveness mean that life can continue, histo­ry can move forward, and redemption can unfold.

The Story in its Contexts (2)←⤒🔗

Now, if you were to take this lightly penciled outline of Joseph and place it over the New Testament, say, over the Gospels, what — better yet: who — would you see? Why, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that's who!

Surely we can see in Jesus Christ the fuller portrait, the embodiment of what Joseph so weakly preached. We can see that forgiving the sins of Jesus' siblings was the point of His suffering — His travels to Egypt and back, His betrayal by His brothers, His false arrest and wrongful death. In fact, forgiving His siblings their sins against Him was the point of all His benevolence and provision — to the five thousand famished Israelites on the shore of Galilee, to the excommunicated Israelite lepers, to the blind and useless Israelite beggar, to the principled Israelite Pharisees, to the denying Israelite Peter. Forgiving His brothers and sisters their sins against Him was, after all is said and done, the point of the cross.

Though revelation has ceased, redemption has not. It continues to this day, in our own lives.

Or does it?

The continuation of redemption within human history is one of the purposes of extending forgiveness.

I don't mean to suggest that God cannot bring redemption to its consummation and fullness without us demonstrating and embodying the graces of the gospel. I, wish only to insist that God does not do so without us. The purpose of being freed is ... to set free! To be saved means to forgive. Or else, what's the point of it all?

So, take some time to finish the story: "According to Scripture, forgiveness does ... what?"